For a while I’ve had a goal to become good at sight reading on guitar. To this end, I’ve been trying to practice sight reading music that I’ve not seen before every day. I’ve been at it for a few months now, and I’m definitely improving which was of course the point. However, I’ve discovered a great side benefit: sight reading can clear my mind of the stresses of the day.
I think the reason for this is that to sight read, you really have to focus on nothing but reading a little ahead and then translating that into the right muscle memories. However, you really need music that is at just the right difficulty level (I use an app which gives me an endless supply). If it’s too hard or too fast you mess up a lot which has the opposite effect. My experience is that if your motive is to use it as a destressing tool then it’s probably better to err on doing lots of exercises that are on the easy side of your ability.
I’m sure this is a good example of flow-state. I’ve experienced it before when being lost in programming or even sometimes when drawing or painting. It’s that wonderful warm feeling where you forget what time it is and you’re lost in your own little world inside your head. I think this is one of the reasons gaming is so popular and I happen to know that gaming companies design for flow on purpose.
Practically speaking, I’m only sight reading for 5-10 minutes each day which seems to be enough. It gives me a bit of a break between work meetings and all the other household chores and responsibilities. Ugh.
I know that sight reading might not be on your list of fun activities, especially if you’re a guitar player. But unlike gaming, you’ll end up learning a really valuable musical skill.
Submitted May 13, 2026 at 09:16AM by GtrJon https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/1tbxvx6/who_knew_sight_reading_clears_my_head/?utm_source=ifttt